T. Boone Pickens, Sen. Harry Reid team up on energy summit

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, fresh off unveiling his plan for energy independence, teamed up today with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to preview their upcoming National Energy Summit in Las Vegas. (Am I the only one who sees a fair bit of irony in scheduling this in what has to date been one of the least sustainable cities on the planet? But then again, I guess it’s where they could sure collect a lot of sunlight for electricity.)

It’s a star-studded — and, the two gents hastened to add, several times, bipartisan — cast of characters including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, the Former Occupant from Arkansas himself, and others. We’ll let Reid hum a few bars:

This is an unusal situation where we have wide-ranging people attending this event. Who would have thought last year that T. Boone Pickens and Sen. Harry Reid would in a boat pulling the oar the same say and one pushing equally with the other?

Pickens — who had just finished briefing Republican presidential candidate John McCain on energy issues — paints himself as horrified by the $700 billion annually we’re sending out of the country to feed our oil habit:

We can’t afford that. It’s totally unacceptable. It’s not sustainable. We’ve got to work together and we’ve go to work quickly to find solutions to the problem. … This is a bipartisan approach to what is I think is the No. 1 issue that faces America today– energy and our dependence on foreign oil.

It’s not like the two agree on everything — in fact, there were differences on offshore drilling apparent on the foner this morning. Both promised a vigorous debate at the summit on Monday and Tuesday.

One final insight into how oilman Pickens’ brain is working nowadays about how to power our cars:

Natural gas is a bridge to the battery and the hydrogen. Whatever our next generation is, the natural gas is going to give you about another 20 years, 20 to 30 years, and you’ll be in that next generation.